A cartoon featuring Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond by one of The Guardian's most prestigious satirists has been branded racist for including a joke about incest.

Steve Bell's Monday cartoon shows the SNP leader saying she would work with a Labour government after the May election but would not compromise on its "core demand" of "incest and Scottish Country Dancing".

Social media outrage took hold almost immediately, with claims the cartoon had been reported to police as a hate crime as tweeters took to the digital barricades. Police Scotland told HuffPost UK it was unable to confirm any official complaints.

The cartoon, which is a reference to a quotation that people should try "everything once, except incest and Morris Dancing" was labelled "racist" and "xenophobic" while "Steve Bell" trended in Glasgow on Twitter on Monday.

Commenting on the page of the latest cartoon, one reader wrote: "I just can't believe this. Shame on you Steve Bell, shame on your editors, and shame on the moderators who edit this. Is this actually the Guardian? Has this app been hacked?

"Breathtakingly offensive. If I was a Muslim or a Jew the law would protect me from this filth. But not, apparently, if I am a Scotsman. You just lost me, I'm off to join the SNP right now. Goodbye."

"We don't support those who trash our nation and people," wrote another who, apparently thinking she had the power to hire and fire at The Guardian, added: "Your p45s in the post!"

But not everyone agreed and felt the cartoon was little different to Bell's other cartoons that skewer and mock politicians.

Dan Hodges, Telegraph and Total Politics columnist, said it showed that journalists who attacked parties that identified as progresssive faced "the Twitter firing squad" while those who attacked right-wing parties had free rein.

Steve Bell cartoon again proving that as long as you attack the Right, anything goes, but attack the Left and it's the Twitter firing squad.

"I love satire, I am a Scot & do not have a problem with this cartoon. I'm also sure that Nicola Sturgeon could not care less about it," a reader commented on the Guardian site.

"But, given this newspaper's cowardly refusal to reproduce the Charlie Hebdo cartoons, one is forced to conclude that (as far as this newspaper is concerned) some targets are easier than others."

Ipso has received complaints about the cartoon but has no power because The Guardian is not a member of the press watchdog.

A spokeswoman for Guardian News & Media told HuffPost UK: "Steve Bell is recognised by his peers - and Guardian readers - as a raw, controversial and talented cartoonist, and his work is often in a pugnacious style.

"The cartoon in question is a commentary on the old joke or saying 'You should try anything once, except incest and Scottish country dancing' and is intended to be viewed in light of this.

"The readers' editor is aware of complaints and will be responding individually."